WAKE UP CALL

WHAT'S NEWS

NSA leaker Edward Snowden has applied to 15 countries for asylum, handing his request to Russian consular officials during a meeting at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport (Los Angeles Times). A statement Snowden released on the Wikileaks website late Monday "seemed to betray a tinge of non-American English." The statement's language is "conspicuously similar to that of Julian Assange" (Washington Post).

Following SCOTUS's decision on the Voting Rights Act, GOPers in NC are moving to pass a voter ID law, and to end early voting, Sunday voting and same-day regsitration (Los Angeles Times).

KY SEN: Sec/State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) said Monday she will run against Sen. Mitch McConnell, giving national Dems a recruiting win after a series of failures to lure major candidates into Southern Senate races (Hotline On Call). Louisville Courier Journal coverage here.

IL GOV: Investor Bruce Rauner (R) raised $736K in donations of $1K or more in the 2ndQ. He has $1.2M on hand. Ex-WH CoS Bill Daley (D) raised $387K in big donations, including $100K of his own money (Chicago Tribune).

NV 03: Consultant/DNC member Erin Bilbray-Kohn (D) said Monday she would run against Rep. Joe Heck (R) next year (Las Vegas Sun). Pres. Obama won NV 03 by a 49.5%-48.7% margin.

The American Action Network will run ads on Fox News urging viewers to call Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to "thank him for keeping his promise and fighting to secure the border." Americans for a Conservative Direction has been running ads in IA "that implores those watching to 'stand with Marco Rubio to end de facto amnesty'" (New York Times).

The DSCC has asked the FEC "to treat married gay couples the same as opposite-sex spouses, part of an early push to bring federal statutes in line" with the SCOTUS ruling striking down DOMA. The DSCC asked the FEC to allow a gay couple to make a single campaign contribution from a joint bank account (Washington Post).

OUR CALL

Hotline editors weigh in on the stories that drive the day

• NC legislators moving to end early voting would be the most dramatic step either side has taken in the voting wars. FL Gov. Rick Scott faced tremendous pressure to reverse himself after merely curtailing some early voting hours; killing early voting altogether is not going to happen quietly. That sound you hear is Dem election lawyers furiously typing up lawsuits.

• Three easy steps the NRCC can take to win back FL 26: Find a candidate. Make sure that candidate is not currently under indictment (Bonus points if the candidate waits until after the election to be indicted). Get the candidate to file against Joe Garcia. Problem solved. (Though to be fair, Obama won 53% there)

• One of the side benefits of TX Dems' organizing surge is that it will keep Dem dollars in the state in the future, a necessity for a rebuilding party. Another state party searching for its way forward, the CA GOP, isn't having as much success capturing local money: Retired Rep. Jerry Lewis (R) formed a new federal PAC using the $850K+ left in his account. Party leaders hoped Lewis and a few other former reps would come through for the cash-poor state GOP, but they haven't had any luck so far.

• After more than six months of playing coy, it's no coincidence that Grimes chose yesterday to jump into the race against McConnell. McConnell has an $8.6M head start and Grimes' first FEC report will be a major indicator of whether she can make up the difference. Grimes will have until Oct. 15 before she has to show McConnell her cards (Side note, though: Not the best roll-out ever. No website, no logo, and most KY Dems didn't get much of a heads up).

FRESH BREWED BUZZ

"We can't change who our president is. But we can change who represents us in Washington" -- Grimes, not making any friends in the WH (Twitter)

VA Gov. Bob McDonnell "repeatedly used state assets for personal and political purposes, including directing state employees to work at private and political events, according to new allegations from McDonnell's former chef." A McDonnell spokesman said the allegations are "claims made by an individual facing four felony charges of embezzlement (Washington Post). Ex-Chef Todd Schneider's lawyers say he became the First Family's "personal shopper and private caterer" (Richmond Times-Dispatch).

Ex-Rep. Bill Gray (D-PA), the first African American to serve as House Majority Whip and a former chairman of the House Budget Cmte, has died at age 71. Gray left Congress in 1991 to take over as head of the United Negro College Fund (Philadelphia Inquirer).

"It will be easier for the Cubs to win the World Series than for a Democrat to beat" IA Gov. Terry Branstad -- Branstad advisor Doug Gross, unnecessarily rubbing it in Cubs fans' faces (Des Moines Register).

Sarah Thomas, of Brandon, MS, is on track to become the NFL's first permanent female referee, "possibly as early as 2014." She just finished officiating at a mini-camp for the Indianapolis Colts (Jackson Clarion Ledger).

House Speaker John Boehner had dinner at the Double Musky Inn in Anchorage on Sunday, part of a multi-day trip that will include a fundraiser for the NRCC and other GOP groups. Boehner said "he had visited the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward and hoped to go fishing" (Anchorage Daily News).

Ex-Rep. Allen West will keynote the Nashua Republican Cmte's annual "Steak Out," one of the biggest fundraisers on the NH GOP calendar, "ahead of what could be a presidential run" (WMUR)

"Politicians are the easiest because they ain’t got much inside / Their motor skills are pretty good, they can really sink those putts / But open them up -- no heart, no spine -- they don’t have any guts" -- Cowboy poet/UT Gov. Gary Herbert, in a poem read as "one of his last acts as chairman of the Western Governors' Association" (Salt Lake Tribune). We hope it's one of his last acts of poetry, too.

SWIZZLE CHALLENGE

Okay, we worded yesterday's question poorly. Ex-Rep. Joe Skeen (R-NM) was the last candidate to win a general election as a write-in candidate, back in 1980. But future Reps. Charlie Wilson (D-OH) and Dave Loebsack (D-IA) both won their primaries as write-in candidates after signature snafus left them off the ballot in 2006. So we accepted all three answers.

The winner is Robert Sumner, who guessed Skeen anyway, and here's his Swizzle Challenge: "With Oregon’s Ron Wyden in line for the Senate Finance Committee, he follows in the footsteps of another Oregon Senator who chaired the same committee. Name the chair and the year he left that chairmanship." The 5th correct e-mailer gets to submit the next question.

SHOT...

"Accepting the invitation from countless Washington liberals to become President Obama’s Kentucky candidate was a courageous decision by Alison Lundergan Grimes and I look forward to a respectful exchange of ideas" -- McConnell

...CHASER

"Welcome, young Skywalker, I have been expecting you" -- Emperor Palpatine, Return of the Jedi